New competency-based education service launches for higher ed

Educate Online recently launched their new Competency-based Education (CBE) Program Management Partnership for higher education institutions at the New England Board of Higher Education’s (NEBHE) conference “The Case for Competency-based Education: A New Age for Teaching and Learning.”

Educate Online has been bringing competency-based instructional services producing “documented outcomes” to the K-20 market since 2002, says the company, and is now building on its “expertise in competency-based education to provide program management services to higher education institutions that want to bring differentiated CBE degree programs to their students.”

“There is great momentum in higher education around CBE programs, but it’s not always easy for institutions to quickly develop, launch and manage these types of programs with their existing resources”, said Carol Vallone, Chief Executive Officer of Educate Online. “We have a business model that leverages our expertise, history and partners to bring a comprehensive CBE program management model to higher education institutions and enable highly-differentiated CBE programs that will drive new enrollments.”

In 2012 CBE was in its infancy with just a limited number of higher education institutions either offering or considering CBE. However, over the last 24 months “now more than 350 institutions currently offer or are seeking to create such degree tracks,” noted a recent Inside Higher Edarticle. This number is expected to continue to grow at a rapid pace.

The Educate Online Program Management Partnership model comes at a time when many colleges and universities are considering how to identify and drive new student enrollments, noted the company, and graduate students with the competencies they need to be “job-ready” candidates.

Educate Online CBE Program Management Partnerships aims to help institutions:

provide competitive differentiation to attract students focused on job-readiness

educate non-traditional students that require more flexibility

align with employer needs and boost economic development

Using a capital efficient business model, Educate Online says it delivers their Competency-based Program Management Partnerships through services including program assessments, marketing, recruiting, enrollment management, program design, program hosting, student and business services; and a “next-generation CBE technology platform to develop and deliver CBE programs.”

“Competency-based education is top-of-mind at institutions of all types and across the nation. They understand the opportunity it presents to deliver on the promise of high quality, personalized, outcomes-based experiences for all types of learners. [The] NEBHE event is a strong validation of that—bringing together nearly 500 educators from a wide variety of institutions, “ said Michael Thomas, president and Chief Executive Officer of the New England Board of Higher Education. “Educate Online’s new service launch positions them as leaders in responding to our member institution’s emerging CBE needs and objectives.”

Meris Stansbury

Meris Stansbury is the Editorial Director for both eSchool News and eCampus News, and was formerly the Managing Editor of eCampus News. Before working at eSchool Media, Meris worked as an assistant editor for The World and I, an online curriculum publication. She graduated from Kenyon College in 2006 with a BA in English, and enjoys spending way too much time either reading or cooking.